Foreign fund ban on Jaisingh's NGO for 6 months

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday barred former additional solicitor general (ASG) Indira Jaising's NGO Lawyers Collective from receiving foreign funds for 180 days with immediate effect and asked why its licence under the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act, 2010, should not be cancelled over misuse and diversion of foreign contributions, including for payment of Rs 96.60 lakh as remuneration to Jaising while she was ASG.

Lawyers Collective was quick to condemn the action as "malafide" and "vindictive", alleging it was a fallout of the cases that the NGO and its trustees were involved in, including those relating to dismissed Gujarat cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon and Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai.

It also recalled how both Jaising and her lawyer husband Anand Grover had represented persons in cases against the government/BJP functionaries including Amit Shah. "This is nothing but gross misuse of FCRA which is being used to suppress dissent," the NGO said, claiming that all its foreign contributions were spent for the purposes received and accounted for.

Lawyers Collective added it would challenge the suspension order in court.

The home ministry order, listing a series of FCRA violations against Lawyers Collective, said "in exercise of powers conferred by Section 14 of the FCRA, 2010, the central government hereby directs Lawyers Collective... to show cause within 30 days of receipt of this notice as to why its FCRA registration should not be cancelled". It further said the NGO's FCRA licence was being suspended for a period of 180 days.

The action against Jaising's venture follows months after she, along with Grover, moved a last-minute petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the rejection of Yakub Memon's clemency plea. The apex court, in an order pronounced just before Memon was due to hang, rejected the plea. He was executed soon after.